Description
Physical description
Painting on a rectangular section of bed board bearing a portrait on each side.
Label
Major Sir Hamish Forbes, the artist of the work, was interned in Laufen Oflag VII C with the subject, during the Second World War.
The subject of the painting, Mike Scott, was responsible for the construction of the early "quickie tunnel" at Laufen. According to anecdotal evidence, he had the misfortune of appearing quite suspicious. "He was considered a very stalwart type," an acquaintance of his reported in 1988. "If he had a fault he had a reputation of looking sinister. You could ask some people to carry 10 000 marks across the courtyard under the German's noses and they could do it with easy nonchalance, but Mike always looked sinister from the first moment looking right and left with a sombre glare, so much that suspicious were aroused immediately even when he was doing nothing. I have some vague recollection of him carrying some bedboards under a blanket, looking as if he'd robbed a bank. My heart bled for him but as I remember he made it without incident." He served with the Durham Light Infantry.
History note
Major Sir Hamish Forbes, the artist of the work, was interned in Laufen Oflag VII C with the subject of the painting, Mike Scott, during the Second World War.
Mike Scott, was responsible for the construction of the early 'quickie tunnel' at Laufen. According to anecdotal evidence, he had the misfortune of appearing quite suspicious. 'He was considered a very stalwart type,' an acquaintance of his reported in 1988. 'If he had a fault he had a reputation of looking sinister. You could ask some people to carry 10,000 marks across the courtyard under the German's noses and they could do it with easy nonchalance, but Mike always looked sinister from the first moment looking right and left with a sombre glare, so much that suspicions were aroused immediately even when he was doing nothing. I have some vague recollection of him carrying some bedboards under a blanket, looking as if he'd robbed a bank. My heart bled for him but as I remember he made it without incident.' He served with the Durham Light Infantry.
Scott was one of 65 officers who escaped from Oflag VIIB, Eichstätt, through a tunnel in June 1943. With 11 others, the tunnellers were sent to Colditz the following month.
Great Escapes exhibition -Returned October 2006.
